Equality Florida on Religious Liberty Executive Order

This week, President Trump’s administration saw Obamacare repealed, and the President also signed an executive order on religious liberty. This marks the second executive order he’s signed concerning religious liberty, and it’s a proposal he showed the American people was very important to be made.

The legislation would give churches and other religious organizations to become more acquainted in the political world, promising to “vigorously promote religious liberty.” The IRS will also be asked to “to exercise maximum enforcement discretion to alleviate the burden of the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits religious leaders from speaking about politics and candidates on the pulpit.”

Equality Florida, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activist group, was set to hold a conference with reporters to discuss the legislation and its effects on Floridians, but the group called off the conference after their attorneys read the contents of the measure.

Hannah Willard, Public Policy Director of Equality Florida commented that “This is the second time that an anti-LGBTQ “License to Discriminate” Executive Order has been threatened and watered down. Each time, rumors were forcefully denounced and met with huge outcry, demonstrating the public’s strong opposition to anti-LGBTQ discrimination in the name of religion.”

Willard also added that “The final Executive Order released today may be a watered-down version of the draconian draft we feared, but make no mistake: we have absolutely no reason to believe a more explicitly anti-LGBTQ action won’t come at a future date. And if anyone in Florida uses this Executive Order to discriminate against a single member of our community, Equality Florida will be there to fight back with everything we have.”